Many of the Most Common U.S. Town Names Are in Idaho

No surprise that Boise didn't make the top ten, but many of the most common names for cities and towns in the U.S. are right here in Idaho.  I bet you can name a bunch of them right now before you look at the list.

Ready?  The most common town name in America is Franklin.  I grew up in Nebraska not too far from a town named Franklin, and Idaho has a Franklin too.  They're everywhere.

Each town that's named Franklin links its name to Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, the author, politician, and inventor, in addition to being a diplomat and activist.  He wasn't controversial and he was important to U.S. history, and that apparently made his moniker a slam dunk for thirty places across the country that needed a name to put on a welcome sign.

Franklin, Idaho is a city in Franklin County and the population was 641 at the 2010 census. It's south of Pocatello, almost at the Utah border.

Idaho has quite a few of the town names that made the top ten.  Fairview is an unincorporated town in Power County.  Springfield is also unincorporated and it's in Bingham County    And it's not a city, but we've got Madison County, which includes Rexburg.

The Most Common Town Names in the US

1. Franklin, 30

2. Fairview, 28

3. Clinton, 27

4. Madison, 23

5. Greenville, 23

6. Marion, 23

7. Salem, 22

8. Arlington, 21

9. Georgetown, 21

10. Springfield, 20

Waverly, Oakland, Chester, Burlington, and Clayton made the top twenty-five too.

I'm kind of surprised Eagle didn't make the list of common names, but maybe this means our name is more common for high school mascots than it is for towns.  And that's just fine with us.

Our Idaho town names may not be the most common, but we'll take a Boise, Nampa, Meridian, Caldwell, or Coeur d'Alene over those commoners any day.  Unique is good.